Monday, December 14, 2009

Today, I have pains in my knees, both my ankles are swollen and I walk like a penguin. But I am extremely happy with myself and proud of my achievement. I ran the Bengaluru Midnight Marathon (42.2Km) in 5 Hours and 20 Min. That’s an average of around 8 Kmph. Right now, an awesome feeling of achievement engulfs me making the pains tolerable and the trouble bearable.

Last year I had taken part in the half-marathon of the same event. This time I am glad I went for the full. I drove to the venue at 7.30PM and got my BIB number and the timing chip. My friends Srini (who took part in the full marathon) and Babu (for half) were also there and we kept each other company till the run began (spending the few hours going around the Forum Mall, talking and listening to some loud music).

The clock struck 11.30 and we geared ourselves for the actual event. The marathon was supposed to be flagged off at 12 Midnight and after a brief warm-up we went to the start/finish line. The night was chill but with all the excitement around the cold didn’t matter. We had to run 10 laps with each lap being 4.22 Km. Based on last years experience I had a strategy in place. Instead of running the initial few laps at full blast (and then struggling to complete), I took a mature approach of running at a more leisurely pace so that I could sustain my speed continuously till the finish. Keeping a target of completing two laps every hour helped me gauge my performance and finish the marathon without any cramps!!.

I made sure I motivated/urged enough number of people on the way. But as time flew the chit-chat and smile waned. But it was always heartening to see my friend Srini smiling and commenting everytime we crossed each other (twice in a loop!). Also another friend of mine who kept me company was Karthik. He called from US several times during the run to keep me going. Is this what comradeship all about?

Anyway, I could sense the shift in my cheerfulness and the diminishing energy levels as the laps went by. I could clearly feel myself slowing down during the 7th & 8th lap. The mind continued to push, but the body was asking it to go to hell…It was a unique experience indeed. One has to run a marathon to experience this funny feeling (or maybe getting heavily drunk might also help you land there..:)) But seriously, this is what makes you feel good about yourself. When the going gets tough and you keep going, you have all the right to touch the finish line. One of the finest examples where perseverance matters and where it pays.

Believe me when I say, the amazing feeling cannot be replaced with anything. Its something that one needs to experience to appreciate it. In the following years, you will look at yourself in the mirror and feel proud of the moment. You will think about this incident and cling to that last thread of hope when everything else seems down and out. You will continue when people say “Its Ok” to give up and say you cannot carry on…This experience will help you to continue fighting with new strategy and new vigor. And last but not the least, it will help you gain an experience that no amount of blogs/articles will help you realize - An experience of a lifetime, the lessons of which lasts an entire life.

Thursday, December 03, 2009

It was one of the most profound and adventurous relationship I ever had. We were so much in awe of each other but still always managed to bring out the best in the other. It was never your beauty that drew me near but the sheer skills and talents. We had so many intimate moments, adventures and insightful tête-à-tête together that I have lost count. The long drives experiencing the monsoon rains, the passing of various seasons and the sheer presence of your company will always be very close to my heart. An amazing journey over more than a decade during which I have grown, matured and hopefully become wiser. It was a stimulating affiliation that only we would have understood.

But like all relationship we had our share of fights and painful moments. It slowly moved us apart and eventually left us with a severed relationship. But memories are etched in sands of time and are very hard to replace. Even now I feel the pinch of pain when I see you or someone very similar to you. But life goes on...

Monday, October 19, 2009

It was a wonderful day - not too gloomy and not too sunny. The Volvo bus that I boarded was full, an indication of things to come. A lot of preparation had gone into this event and it was clearly showing. As for myself, I was the 42nd person to register, almost 2 months in advance, and I was looking forward to it.

‘Cycle’ or ‘bike’ as people officially call it was my first vehicle to freedom. Not that my parents placed any curbs on my freedom but it always felt good to be independent and go long distances without any dependency on one’s parents or for that matter the public transport system.

I no longer have a cycle and hence had opted for a rented one for the Cyclothon. I had sent mails to many of my friends about this event and the reactions varied. Some enthusiastic friends at office registered even before I could while others wondered whether they could complete the 50Km Armature ride. As far me I just wanted to try it out. It was a long time since I had cycled and this provided another opportunity to experience the feeling. I knew it surely would bring back the buried nostalgia.

It is this very same feeling that the current cycle manufacturers wanted to tap into and hence there were no dearth of sponsorship for the event. The same crop of people who had grown on a cycle had become software professionals with a disposable income enough to spend on high end cycles. Added to this, the current generation wants to go GREEN and of course burn those extra calories that they easily accumulate. This market had great potential and all the manufacturers wanted to tap into it.

The market analysis was perfect as showed by the overwhelming registrations. There were more registrations then BSA-Hercules could handle. They had also made the offer of providing people with cycles on a rental basis for those who didn’t have one and this prompted an increase in participation. But as things become too much to handle, the organizers rejected all these applicants a week prior to the event. I was one of the unfortunate ones…

One of my colleagues sought help from an influential person to get a backdoor entry. I followed his footsteps and called “Go Green Rao”, whose enthusiasm for these activities is contagious. He took it upon himself to get us an entry and actually succeeded at it.

I borrowed a cycle from another colleague/friend of mine the previous day and deposited it at the Koramangala Indoor Stadium for transportation to the actual venue. My colleague & friend Srini was there with me while I was getting it oiled and repaired. When I paid just Rs5 for all the repairs, he laughed and said “In more than a decade you wouldn’t have spent just Rs5 on any kind of repair”! How true was it!

At the registration desk we got a wildcraft goody bag with Rs500 voucher. What more could I have asked? ;)

The next day when I reached the venue, the atmosphere was overwhelming. It was heartening to see so many cycles in Bangalore and interestingly many had come with proper gear not only for themselves but also for their vehicles. Until that day I had never seen cycle holders on a car at Bangalore (In my Euro-trip I could see these equipments almost everywhere…). There were more than 6500 participants and the overall turnover was almost 10000. The atmosphere was electric with people very eager to start the event.

We were left from the start-finish line in hordes of 10-20 in order to avoid accidents. The ride itself was very smooth. It was great to ride on NICE road even though there were quite a few steep climbs. Who ever invented gears might be a genius but I prefer to be in top gear and finish the climbs faster. This strategy doesn’t workout in the long run as you will get tired very fast, but again I prefer reaching the destination faster than to cycle with very little output/movement forward (When one is in lower gear climbing uphill is very easy but you will have to pedal more and it will be slow!).

The entire ride took me about one and half hour and I didn’t feel tired at all. At finish line we were welcomed with bananas and water. I had good quantity of both and loafed around with some of my friends for sometime. I could have deposited my bike there and collected the same the next day from Koralamangala Indoor Stadium, but it would have required me to apply half a day’s leave. So I rode back home along with my friend. It took us an hour and 10 min to reach home which was approximately what the Volvo bus took in the morning to reach the venue!! There were huge traffic jams on the way and for the first time I was crisscrossing through it with a grin on my face..:) It is an awesome feeling when everyone is stranded and you ride through the maze..:) By 1PM I was at home and my mom’s delicious lunch was awaiting me…

At the end of the day, the experience was worth the effort and it was quite splendid.But any day marathons are way more tiring and ‘happening’ than cycling!!! Maybe next time I should join my colleagues in cycling to places like Mysore to get the actual hang of long-distance cycling…

Sunday, October 04, 2009

Its amazing how one never gets tired if one is doing what one loves...Its past 3AM and I don’t know whether to go to sleep or simply wait for another couple of hours for my morning jog...Life sure has its ways of telling us what we love, but the question is, do we listen?

One constantly keeps hearing that “Love doesn’t let one sleep”. People might have used that phrase in a different sense but I can clearly see it happening. I am still up and don’t really mind skipping my sleep for the night. The joy that i get from this is much more lasting than those few hours of sleep would have given me...

Love is what you want and once you have found it, it doesn't matter how many fewer hours you get to sleep or how much extra effort you will have to put in. If you love what you are doing, then how can it be “Work”?Given this, why is it that so few of us pursue what we love? Why is that we fear leaving our comfort zone? Why is that we get lazy and give up trying..? Isn’t it kind of an irony that as we get older the ‘maturity’ is us prevents us from chasing what we really want to achieve...?

Sunday, September 27, 2009

I wanna sleep on the green grass, surrounded by white snow watching the sparkling stars make holes on the sky above…I wanna drive through the marshy grasslands, surrounded by a pride of lions, watching the sunset across the solitary lake in the centre of the forest…I wanna dive from a plane, face the full force of gravitation, the chute making me float like a feather crisscrossing the breaths of the world…I wanna sit in a thatched cottage reading and writing books, enjoying the hot cup of coffee over debates and conversations…I wanna get drenched in rain, swim across the river, safari through the deserts and sit on a beach watching the duel between the waves and the sand grains…I wanna bike through the mountains, singing my heart out on the way to the top of the world…I wanna run, run when everyone around gives up or tells you to stop…I wanna enjoy the Perks of life!!!

Tuesday, August 18, 2009

Have you ever wondered how it would be traveling across Europe backpacking?Have you ever wondered how it would feel meeting strangers daily, living with them, talking to them, trekking with them, exchanging information, emails etc..?Do you ever ponder how you would react if you were alone traveling to a new country, to a new city every couple of days?Do you wonder how it would be to stay at a hostel in a dorm with new people day after day, getting to know them, understanding their thought process and their way of life?How it would feel to land in a new city, understand their culture, their language and even their public transport system?How it would feel to trek at Black forests, jump from a 1000feet cliff, Paraglide, Parasail, ski and sledge in snow, trek at the top of Europe?Travel on boat buses? Travel through thousands of years of history, culture, wars and turmoil?How would it feel to drive through wallpaper or a picture postcard, where nature plays with colors and you sit back and enjoy?Each day, each minute, experience new adventures?

My entire trip encompassed answers to all these and much more…I had set out with a lot of assumptions and expectations, apprehensions and uncertainty. But the entire experience has surpassed each and every expectation, thoroughly enjoyed the uncertainty and found the apprehensions to be unfounded.Even before I boarded the flight I had imagined my trip, my stay at hostels and the way I would spend my time. But at the end of the day I realized how limited ones imagination could be. My imagination was limited by my experiences, my thought process and what I had seen or read…Only when you actually go through the process of planning a backpacking trip and then executing it will you realize how much the entire experience broadens your horizon. Things you thought were not possible will now seem quite natural…It adds new perspectives…

Daily I used to maintain a diary of what I did, what I went through, people I met, and what I learnt. The diary is full, but when it comes to summarizing, I am finding the diary to be exhaustive and I am struggling to put all those feelings in a single post. I have spent almost a week wondering how to put the gist of my experience in words, but I am finding it humanely impossible to compress all those thoughts. I could just upload my diary, but I really don’t want to bore you guys with all the details.…

Some of the things I really liked were the way people handled themselves, the discipline and the courtesies they follow. They give so much of importance to extra curricular activities that you would be amazed. They are so meticulous about everything that it makes you wonder why we don’t follow them…I can talk for hours about people there and their behavior. The numerous interactions I have had with them have really brought out new perspectives in me. I am truly amazed and impressed with their care free attitude, their priorities and management of time, the way they care about people (even those who are total strangers to them) etc…I have had from very good memories (at places like France, Germany and Netherlands) to not so good ones (like Italy)…But the towns were the best. For instance my visit to Friburg (Germany) was the most unplanned thing and I had absolutely no idea where my hostel was. Generally the first time I land at a new city or town I make sure I reach the place during normal day time so that it is easier to get a map and search around. But at Friburg I landed at around 5.30 AM and I didn’t want to wait, so I just carried on to find my hostel. I met a couple of friendly people (who didn’t even know English), who tried to help me find my way, but I was hopelessly lost. Then I met this girl (who was on her way to the only university in that town) and she went out of her way in helping me. She actually came all the way to my hostel in a tram and dropped me at my hostel. Not many people actually do such things but I was trying to just give an example of the kind of people I met there.The Americans that I trekked with and the other Europeans from my hostels that I mingled with were no different. It was such a pleasure to meet them. After a point of time I was helping others with their itineraries, explaining the functioning of public transport system etc. Some of them were so impressed that they included me in their plans as if I was part of their family. Some of the activities like the Gondala ride at Venice were possible only because I was part of such larger group…It felt really good.

I loved cycling, especially at Berlin and Amsterdam. With the dedicated lanes, gear and attire required for such a activity its simply lovely…Loved the Café culture, the sheer choices when it comes to sports activities (which encompasses all sections of the economic strata – from swimming, cycling, rowing to paragliding, parasailing, skiing etc)…

Each city, street and building has so much history behind it that you will be amazed and overwhelmed with information. Even if you are not a history enthusiast you will feel yourself getting immersed in the history prevalent everywhere, you will go out of the way in visiting the numerous museums and even spend extra to get an audio guide. Its never ending but worth every penny, as any number of history books wouldn’t give you such live coverage and complete information.

I could go on and on…I really wholeheartedly feel everyone should do a backpacking trip atleast once in their lifetime. It’s something everyone will enjoy in their own unique way…And its never too late (I actually met a 70 year old scientist from Belgium who was on a backpacking trip of his own)…

Until then if you are interested you can have a look at couple of my videos and snaps. The links are given below…For a lot better video clarity use any other browser other than IE.. :)

Tuesday, July 28, 2009

Having a time of my life now...Am not able to fund or find time for blogging..:(So will come back home and blog about my experiences..The keyboard here has such a different setting. I am struggling big time!! Anyway i had been to London and Scotland with my sis and Brother in law..It was great and the drive was wonderful...An amazing experience thanks to them..

Then i was off to Paris, Amsterdam and now i am at Berlin..Each city is so different, yet so similar...Discovering each city and understanding the way it goes about its business was a huge learning...Made a lot of friends at the hostels, which is something i will definitely cherish..More later..:)

Am off to Friburg, Southern Germany, to have a trek at Black Forests (does black forest cake ring a bell?) and then am off to Interlaken (Switzerland)...Catch you people soon..

Tuesday, July 14, 2009

Here I am. This is me. Embarking on a journey of a lifetime...
I am off to Western Europe backpacking, on what I believe would be one of the most memorable and exciting experience. The planning that went to this trip in itself has already made it an enthralling experience. The every minute that I spent planning has made me so much wiser and knowledgeable. I can talk about backpacking, the advantages, the experience etc. for hours together, and I have not even started the journey yet!!

Traveling will and should be a change from everything familiar. Talking to the people you meet, many of whom may not be English-speaking but still eager to answer questions, is what it’s all about. Irrespective of how many times you backpack, you want it to stretch you and remove you from a comfort zone. You want to listen and learn from your fellow hostilities, learn and understand the various cultures, and grasp every minute detail. Its going make you think along perspectives that you thought never existed. Someday it’s all going to help and you might thank yourself for having embarked on such a journey…

It is the experience of a lifetime! Everyday you will have different stories, different experiences to share and be heard, so whether you start from England, Spain, France or Germany, you will create an experience that will never be forgotten!

When my journal is full and I am sick of wearing the same set of t-shirts, I will have stories, names, and places to speak of for years to come. The feeling of great achievement the learning and the experience may not be understood by everyone. One will discover that many will really not understand just how cool it was, because many just can’t. The backpacking experiences are yours alone. It’s only when you return to all things familiar that you’ll notice how much they’ve changed you.

I am sure at the end of it, I will have some of my greatest memories etched while backpacking across Europe. There may be good moments and bad, but in the end nothing would compare to the experiences I will have.

Friday, July 10, 2009

Recently in IPL I saw the “Appam” (read Sreesanth from the fakeiplplayer fame), praying profusely every ball he had to bowl at the opposition! Most balls were hit out of the park, but still the praying continued…Out of all the games he played the most comical was when Hayden was smashing him all around the park, but Appam very meticulously returned back to his bowling line and prayed continuously…What was he thinking??

Did he not understand that the prayers were not being answered? Unless of course he was praying to get hit! Out of all the games he played, in only one game he actually bowled well, which resulted in his praying increasing ten fold…

Unfortunately, recently I had to visit a hospital and I saw that there was a mini-temple right in the middle of the string of operation theaters…Neither the temple bells nor the God had even a second of free time…Almost the entire time I was waiting there, right through the night, I used to see people praying for the recovery of their loved ones…I am sure none would have asked why they were there in that hospital in the first place…!

Instances such as these show that being GOD is the most highly unaccounted Job. Its always a win-win situation for Him, with most people being steady followers of some God irrespective of what is really happening in their lives…Having said that God never applied for this job in the first place and neither did he ask us to do what we are doing…So cant blame him..:)

Last few weeks has been hectic to the core…There was not even an iota of time for anything…Hardly used to sleep…In this melee, a lot of positive things have happened, both professionally and personally. Professionally it was very hectic but turned out to be really good considering that the reward was something that was totally unexpected, and personally I have crossed a barrier that had been haunting me for a long time now…The pain and sorrow was extinguished in an instant. The thirst has increased, but I am all geared up to quench it!! Life has started looking more rosy and there is spring in my stride..:) When all these things have been happening the one thing that never stopped was my prayers…I always wonder why is that we continue to pray whether things go right or they go completely berserk…Whether there is an actual God or not, one thing is for certain – praying definitely helps to keep your target in sight without loosing hope, because you feel there is “that someone” out there listening to you, who will help you make your dreams come true..!!!

Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Most things in life you can tolerate to a certain extent or maybe to a large extent…But after a point, you realize the line was crossed…!

Its just not one thing, but a series of events that makes you to suddenly plunge to a conclusion that should have logically been arrived eons back…Inspite of everything that had been done, was done and willing to do, you just say “Damm it”, and push it down the bottomless grave…

Only after the necessary spades were struck, the required number of spears hurled, you take action, strong action that leads to results and makes you wonder what had stopped you all this time…But the fact of the matter is, the wait, the agony and the lessons made you take that strong action, which otherwise wouldn’t have led to the same results…And more importantly wouldn’t have led you to sweet results, had there been even an iota of doubt, a doubt which would have lingered had it not been for the true crossing of the line!!!

Friday, May 01, 2009

Sometimes I ask myself why do I blog? Why do I take the pain of putting my thoughts into writing? What pleasure do I get? What kind of a blogger am I?

Have you thought about it? Have you ever wondered why you blog or why you read on what others have to say?

Blogging has been one of the most significant revolutions in the last decade or so. I think it has given that extra zing to literature (if you feel literature is too big a word, lets say to literary skills like reading/writing..:)). It really doesn’t matter how good or bad one is, one can always write something and publish them at no cost at all…And in the process if one can catch the imagination of the masses one can really get opportunities to do this full time, make money and live happily ever after (lol), which maybe wouldn’t have been possible without the exposure given by blogosphere..

There are various kinds of bloggers. Personal, pictures, videos, humor - you name it and there are blogs which talk about it…There are those who make quite a hefty money out of it too..Sometimes it so happens that the ads occupy more space than the content of the blog..:)

People say there’s a book inside everybody. The blogs just prove it and it has just let the book out! People always have had opinions, but the difference now is that they have a medium where they can express them freely…So we have been seeing an explosion of opinion. Now we can hear all sorts of voices on any subject. It’s true democracy at work. It’s been such a success that major news organizations have started quoting blogs in their articles to give credibility to what they are saying…

When I initially started out I just wanted some space where I can pour out my thoughts as an anonymous blogger. But with an url as stupid as mine how can one be anonymous? ;) So there I was writing articles on what I thought was interesting and what I thought I should be writing…I wrote articles on day-to-day happenings, philosophy, experiences, people, poems etc…If the article was not factual, it mostly would be my opinions. Sometimes I would just use it to vent my frustrations.

The blog helped me to write several articles on various subjects and the most importantly I found that I could write poems too…I was always under the impression that poems are the toughest nut to crack and most difficult to write, but thanks to blogging I was able to attempt it and am quite happy with the way I pen them now…Initially when I started blogging, everything I wrote was more explicit but as the days went by I could pen my thoughts without actually revealing too much…The poems helped me a lot in doing this..:)

There were days when I wrote what I thought was one of the best articles ever written, but there would be none who would comment on it…But there were other days when I would have written something more casual, which I thought wouldn’t touch people’s imagination, but eventually it would turn out that I was totally wrong…Each comment is special and it encourages you to write more...But having said that if one depends solely on comments for continuing to write, then you would stop blogging sooner rather than later…People might read your blog, come and visit it regularly but may not enter comments at all (that’s what I do to many of the blogs that I follow..:)). So the number of comments are never an indication for the popularity of a blog..

It does help to have people dropping in comments but if one writes articles for the sake of it then very soon one would stop writing because its an expectation that gets fulfilled very rarely…Again another thing is if you want to increase the number of hits on your blog or make money out of it then there are ways by which one can do so (like regularly publishing several posts a day… I have seen people do so and successfully too)

But such things wouldn’t be possible if your blog is more personal. The continued existence of personal blogs are a different reason altogether…And its tougher to continuously write or maintain personal blogs. Also people who follow such blogs are fewer in numbers. Eventually topics get restricted, and people just get plain lazy after a point of time.

Like practically everything else on the Web, blogs are easy to start and hard to maintain.

For me none of the above are really motivating factors (except of-course the valuable comments that you guys leave here..:)). Generally I write what comes to my mind on various topics, the experiences that I have had, the emotions etc that comes along this rollercoaster ride called ‘life’…Most often than not it has been a place where I can pour my heart out (and sometimes the pouring is done in such a way that others don’t get head or tail of what’s been written). But if I look at the blog I can relate to each and every post and each and every line of that post. It’s like Tendulkar saying he remembers every run he scores or the manner in which every time he gets out. The posts talk to me and I can feel the moment at which a particular line was written. Its really an amazing feeling to just walk through some of the posts that one has written over a long period of time…Sometimes I just laugh when I read some of the posts that I had written and it would seem silly now, but the important factor is to realize why and when it was written…I was a different person then and maybe/hopefully a different (or should I say more matured person) now…But still it gives me that happiness that I have continued over such a long period of time, not giving up in the process and carrying on..

I have strangely observed people having varying opinions about my writing…There are few who are pretty vocal about how or what I write, who encourage me to continue, who have few nice words to say at the end of each post, or who comment on the blog or otherwise comment whenever we get a chance to talk and its really heartening. But for every such kind there will be several others who take it upon themselves to ridicule the way I write, who comment on how naïve one could be to write articles such as these and how could I write such things on a blog. There are others who say its beautiful the way you write, but would make fun of it behind your back (I have had this experience too)..There are scores of others - silent spectators, who are on either sides of the fence…But again why do we blog? Every person is entitled for an opinion and its very easy to have one especially on stuffs that we write on…So it would really boil down to whom you want to listen at the end of the day (i.e assuming that you want to listen to someone..:))?

More often, somehow blogging has given me that extra happiness, a source to express my feeling, emotions, frustrations and someday I would like to visit the entire archive of my own blog and see how I have come along over a period of time..I have gained knowledge, confidence and extra talents while blogging…I have made many friends whom I have never really met, made some friends whom I had the pleasure of meeting only because I started blogging and the network just builds (now I have some friends from Pakistan!! Would that have been possible any other way?)…I had started blogging for a number of reasons and most of them still remain the reasons why I keep continuing…Only when you start venturing into something new or different and continue to pursue on it for sometime would you realize the benefits/advantages that come along with it. It makes one wonder what one would have missed if one hadn’t ventured into it…

As an individual, I would highly recommend that you have some sort of publishing strategy, whether it be a blog, newsletter, writing articles for magazines, website or whatever. It really helps in a lot of sense. This is an age where you need to build your reputation word by word. Start off by finding something people care about and most importantly something that you care about.

Friday, April 03, 2009

You are generally treated like God in a five star hotel. It’s even more evident when you travel during times of recession, especially when they know that your stay would be for more than a week!! I am currently in ITC Park Sheraton, Chennai and I am thoroughly enjoying the “hotel”…Worth every penny of the 10K per day rent...

I have interacted and worked with folks from couple of service companies. But working from one of these companies throughout the day for several days has been an enriching experience (someday i will write a post comparing the two - my perspectve on the advantages and disadvantages of both service and product companies)… Here are some of the lighter moments…

~ The cafeteria looks like a Kalyana Mantap (Indian Marriage hall for those who don’t know what it meant..:)) with thousands of people eating and chit-chatting together.

~ All of them neatly dressed in formals and I as usual was in a T-shirt (that too a bright colored one!). It was such a contrast and people kept staring at me…I am sure the HR of that company would have used this pretext to fire me during these recession times had it not been for a “client-tag” around my neck. So they just joined the staring phenomenon.

~ If one goes for a coffee at 4 in the evening, one would have to wait in a queue for a cup of coffee for atleast 15 minutes.

~ The coffee is one of the best I have ever had and my caffeine intake for the past 1 week has been more than what I have had during the last one year!!

~ Couple of days back people here got new compensation packages with “the recession” taking its effect on their pocket. The last few days there is nothing but this talk among their employees (of course *all in a hush tone*)…

~ One of my colleagues was caught by a policeman on one of the roads in Chennai and he was asked to pay a fine of Rs1500 for couple of “supposedly committed crimes”. My friend hesitated and pleaded ignorance to the rule as he was new to the city. The police apparently asked him from where he had come and which company he worked for. Once the policeman heard that he was a “software Engineer” working in IT, the police took pity on him and immediately left him for a partly sum of Rs100. The reason given – “IT is full down!!!”

~ I saw a lot of Satyam buildings on the way to the office I daily visit. One of the people whom I work with narrated a funny incident. She comes daily in a AC bus here. The fares are very high compared to normal buses (If its Rs2 for a normal bus, the AC would cost Rs 18). When one of the commuters got down from the bus near a Satyam building, the conductor of the bus, looking at the building she was entering, shouted and asked her why she was wasting her money coming in a AC bus…He even advised her to get used to the normal bus and make it a point to commute on it everyday, given the current situation her company is in.

~The “Besanth Nagar” beach @ Chennai brought quite a few memories from my last visit here (seems like eons ago)…It was awesome to be on a beach in the night…

Its only during recession that we get to know what kinds of fraud people commit…Last few months has been a revelation...Right from big stalwarts to well-established companies, we have seen them tumble. Examples galore…

~ Stanford (and his lady CIO – Google on how she became the CIO of such a huge enterprise – apparently her major asset was “she never asked questions” and that “her job was to match the left column with the right column”!!!)

~ Prominent investment manager Bernard Madoff (and his hedge fund – People were given very high interest rates and he used to fund the huge interest payable to previously invested people with new funds. He was one of those highly acclaimed investment manager. The loop continued until suddenly a lot of people demanded that their money be returned (obviously due to their fear of recession). He was caught when he could no longer gather any “new money” to return the old ones – It’s a very interesting read, should be a financial case study).

~ Banks (haa..Should I even start this list? Each one is more interesting than the other)

~ Credit card business (I hope we have seen the last of the impact from this business. But I live on false hopes).

Thursday, March 19, 2009

Are they sparkling because of the burning desire that runs deep down the oceans of eternity, depths that the world has never seen…Or are they sparkling because they are moist and the oceans are salty with it…Moisture that doesn’t run on the surface but deep within..

But the more I look at it the more I get convinced that they were merely mocking at me. It was that friendly mocking laughter, gayety personified. All one has to do is look down the precipice to realize the enormity of the thoughts and the background behind those wonderful eyes. The secrets and the unrevealed thoughts all displayed in front of you without one’s knowledge…Eyes the master revealer for those who want to look deep inside!!!

Wednesday, March 18, 2009

Thanks to one of my friend I found out something new about my name after all these years…My name is apparently an Ambigram!! For those of you who doesn’t know what an Ambigram is, then please have a look at the image below and see what you can come up with…

Basically an Ambigram is a graphical figure that spells out one or more words not only in its form as presented, but also in another direction or orientation.

So in my case my name and its inverted image looks the same!! When my friend first pointed it out to me I just laughed saying there is no such thing…Then after she sent me the image I was thoroughly perplexed…:) Then I googled about it..(you can read more about it here). It was nice to see such symmetry in my name too..;-) haha..

Tuesday, March 03, 2009

Today was one of those days when I had to reach office by 6.30 AM. So inevitably I had to get up really early to complete my usual early morning chores at an unusual hour…!

It was also an hour when you get to see the spiders and roaches at their active best…I don’t have the habit of killing them whenever I see one of those running around…Most often than not, I just displace them from their current location and throw them where I might not go until the near future(don’t ask me why, but I hate both the sight of them and the thought of killing them!!) Anyway I digress…

So today I saw this solitary spider trying to climb the bathroom door…The door was wet and it was struggling to get a grip on it and hence for every few steps it took to climb up, it would invariably tumble and lose more height than it had gained…My clothes were hanging above in the hanger and I didn’t want it to reach anywhere near my clothes…So I decided that if it comes anywhere near it I will pour water on it, flush it down the urinal and give it a watery grave…

But the whole time I was there it never reached beyond the first half of the door…I just carried on with my daily duties and just before I left for office I wanted to check where this hard working creature was and to my surprise I found it right at the top of the door. It made me wonder what would have happened if it had actually succeeded the first time. Even though it would have managed to reach near the top of the door it would have ultimately ended up in a watery grave…

The very fact that it failed so many times in the matter of 15 min that I was there, or in other words ‘because’ it failed to make it past the half way mark inspite of its best efforts, it remained alive and now happily sat in its web!! What contrast in the end result..!!

Can you see, how our lives could be paralleled to this? Have you ever wondered what would have happened if everything had worked out the first time you tried..!!

Even though I prefer everything to work out the first time, life’s best lessons are learnt when you fail and overcome it eventually…

It just reminded me of the quote “What we do does not define who we are. What defines us is how we rise after falling…”

Monday, February 16, 2009

How does one compute the net worth of an individual? Does it includes only materialistic things or is there more to it than just that?

On what basis do you make a decision on a particular person? What are the key points you look at, for you to say…”Ha, There is the guy who will make something out of his life!!”… What are the criteria?

What about your own self-assessment? How much would you say you are worth? (Nope.. Don’t put yourself in Ramalinga Raju’s shoes) Does only the current money count or does the ‘potential’ within you, taken into account? What price would you put on yourself?

Lately there has been so much talk about net worth of a company; it made me wonder, what’s the net worth of an individual? How does one calculate such a thing? If tomorrow I want to bet on someone, on what criteria would I place my confidence in him/her?

I mean he/she might have enough money to last a lifetime but would that suffice? Would I be looking at more than that? It doesn’t take much time to lose money! What about some one who is bankrupt but has the potential to do a lot of things…Would I bet on such a person?

Lets look at a generally accepted formula to calculate the net worth of an individual or a company, in the corporate world..

Net Worth = Total assets - Total liabilities.

But,

It is important to note that formula for net worth measures only the book, or accounting value of a business. This amount is not usually the same as the market value of a business, which is the amount an informed buyer would pay to acquire the business in an arm's length transaction.

It is important to know that just as a credit score changes every day, your net worth also changes every day. Every time you make a decision, every time you venture into something new or ‘most often’ every time you don’t venture into something, your net worth keeps changing... If these things are constantly happening, is it possible to get a truly accurate depiction of one's net worth?

Definitely! If one is astute enough, one can always gauge anyone’s net-worth with enough knowledge in one’s hand…All it requires is some open-mindedness and the courage to accept what you see…

Wednesday, January 14, 2009

The night was cold and the wind chilly. But the atmosphere was electrifying. There were hordes of people each having their own reason to be there. Usually when people turn up in such large numbers there is added confusion and suffocation but not that night. It was quite orderly and pleasant. People were indeed in high spirits (Nope!! not due to Alcohol..:)).

I was at the TOImidnight marathon this weekend and what an enriching experience it was!! Finished the half marathon (21.1Kms), achieving the feat in 2 hours 20 min...The feeling was really awesome…What was even better was the circumstance under which I was able to achieve it!! Running in midnight is a different experience altogether...Developed knee cap problems mid way but still managed a decent time…It took a lot of determination and a lot of support from my friends (friends I made while running), co-runners and also an aunty (more on her later in the post)!!

I went alone as none of my friends wanted to run a half marathon. It was an hours drive to Whitefield (the venue of the event)…The place was already swarming with people, most running the “city run”…Was very surprised to see so many people away from their cozy beds…People from all walks of life and from all age groups had come…All wanting to be part of this midnight event…

I could see the road ahead. It was fully lit and I could see lights as far as my eyesight could reach. It was inviting everyone to just start and I just couldn’t wait.

The clock struck 12 midnight and there I was living one of my dreams…

I wanted to avoid the elbowing and pushing that usually happens at the beginning and hence I ran right at the start of the marathon. Not a very good idea!! But who cares? I ran like a maniac and there were hardly anyone in front of me…Then I started slowing down…Though many overtook me later, the plan worked…:)

The target was to do a sub 2 hour marathon but as it turned out I took 20 extra minutes…

I had hardly prepared for this event except for couple of previous runs…I knew I could make it, but the lack of training showed. It turned out to be more challenging than I had imagined…Though in terms of experience it exceeded my expectations hands down…

The run was supposed to be two laps (11 km each) and almost at the end of the first lap I felt severe pain in my knee cap. This was something that I had faced for almost a month and I suspected it to trouble me during the run. The pain was severe and thoughts of giving up started to germinate…I started to walk back towards the start/finish line where we were supposed to take a U turn for our second lap. Just when I was about to reach the start/finish line I heard a huge roar from the spectators and I turned around to see who they were cheering for, but I saw no one…I thought they were cheering some winner (Relay, half and full marathons were happening almost at the same time)…To my pleasant surprise I realized the LOUD cheer was for ME..I couldn’t believe it..It was as if I had won a medal at the Olympics. All thoughts of giving up vaporized. I completed the U turn and continued…I had taken 58 min to complete the first lap…

The second half was too much to bear…The pain was excruciating…But everytime I stopped I would get a tap/pat on my back by fellow runners nudging me to carry on… The best support came from my first lap co-runners..They saw that I was struggling with my knees and they would encourage me as if their run also depended on me finishing. I made quite a few friends that night and we were really supporting each other as if we knew one another for years!! The feeling was something out of this world..

The second lap went pretty slow...Had a lot of water in between (There were stalls with volunteers every 200 mts with water and glucose. They not only give you water but also encouraging words)…I made up mind to finish this no matter what. Every second I imagined myself completing the marathon and feeling great about it…It made sure I carried on in spite of the pain…It was during the second lap that I really observed this stout lady sitting on the compound of her house with ashawl and shouting at the top of her voice..She was there all through the night shouting encouraging words for every single runner that passed her home…I was literally crawling when I reached her place, as if about to pass out. Seeing this, she got down from her compound braving the cold and the security, reached me and told me “Son, there is only 3 kms left. You can do it!!”. All I could do was stare at her and smile..I was totally taken back by her reaction and I started jogging again…The second lap took me 1 hr 20 min…

I finally completed the run in over 2 hr 20 min and was received at the finish line with a loud cheer. The timing stewards noted the time and I sat for the first time relishing the moment…

I sat with a bottle in my hand and watched others finish the run…The atmosphere was so contagious that I too joined the cheering sessions…I couldn’t stand and the Manipal hospital authorities applied some pain reliever spray to assuage the pain…It was really cold and I could see mist coming out of my mouth every time I breathed out… I was pretty much shivering…I never realized Bangalore could get so cold…I finally got up at 3.00 AM and bought a hot cup of tea for 3 bucks and a biscuit packet for 5 bucks.. Entrepreneurs in India!! That guy realized there was a demand and suddenly a make shift shop had cropped up with coffee, tea and biscuits!! Anyway I was quite relieved to have something to eat…People were still running but I slowly started my walk back to the parking lot..Took me about 40 min to reach the car…The car was fully drenched with moisture…The drive was pretty smooth and was back home by 5.00 AM…

Now when I think of it, it makes me wonder…What a marathon it was!!! It was a run to remember!!! It showed me what sportsmanship was all about, made me realize with great determination you could achieve anything against all odds, the importance of making and having friends, the thrust to experience new things without which you will always see the world the way you have always been seeing…Something else that I was surprised to see was the number of middle aged people running half marathons…That showed that you don't need to be fit and thin to run. As long as the intent is there and you have the passion for what you are doing then, you will be what you want to be and achieve what you want to achieve!!!